"Many of the population did not like to be reminded continuously of what war was really like.

"In the First World War, an entirely different category of mutilated soldiers returned from the war with these horrific wounds that were inflicted by modern ammunition.

"There were soldiers who returned who had suffered psychological shock. Some had been buried for hours in their dugouts and no longer had control over their extremities. These were the soldiers who had suffered and who showed, and continued to show, what suffering in the trenches had meant.

"They had not turned themselves into heroes. They were not even capable of functioning in the society at the end of the war. But they were a continuous reminder of what they had gone through in the gas attack, in the bombardment, in being buried for hours under the earth, and being at the brink of psychological collapse. And many of the population did not like to have to face these war cripples. They did not wish to be reminded continuously of what war was really like. And these bodies were really sites of remembrance."